CULTURE, POWER, AND CIVIC LIFE

ANT 176 FAll 2019 T/Th 2:00-3:15 Schroeder 242

Prof. Kathryn Driscoll

Office: Schroeder 343
Email:
Office Hours: Thurs. 1:30-3:30 or by appt.

Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to enable students to think anthropologically about contemporary
issues and to inspire students’ civic engagement to address them. Based in a cross-cultural
examination of race, class, and gender, the perspective of cultural anthropology provides us with
unique tools for understanding peoples’ life experiences from around the world. It also helps us to
use these diverse cultural experiences to understand how power operates throughout the world
and how students at ISU are embedded in those global power struggles. In this course, students
will develop informed positions on a number of contemporary issues throughout the world and
will practice communicating about those issues online.

Course Objectives:
Anthropology 176 is an introduction to anthropological thinking and fulfills a number of goals of
Illinois States University’s General Education program. By the end of the semester, students will
be able to:
 Develop critical and analytical reading, thinking, speaking, and writing skills, focusing
on using the categories of race, class, and gender to critically analyze scholarship and
popular media;
 Express clear and concise critical/analytical arguments in an online video format about
contemporary issues based on ethnographic and historical data;
 Define and use key anthropological concepts, such as ethnocentrism, cultural relativity,
race, society, and culture;
 Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of anthropological inquiry as holistic and
comparative, and how concepts developed in this field differ in comparison to other
disciplines.

Textbooks:
 Armstrong, Elizabeth A. & Laura T. Hamilton. Paying for the Party: How College
Maintains Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
 Spradley, James & David W. McCurdy. 2016. Conformity & Conflict: Readings in
Cultural Anthropology Fifteenth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
 Readings on Reggienet

Assignments:
Exams 65% (Exam 1=15%, Exam 2=25%, Exam 3=25%. Exam 3 is cumulative; Exams 1 & 2 are
not.)
Videos 30% (3@10% each)
Discussion questions 5% (there will be 12; .5% each, extras count as bonus)

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 Course Schedule and Readings
8/20 Intro
What is culture?
Wk
“Culture and Ethnography” (Spradley & McCurdy 2016: 1-5)
1
8/22 “Ethnography and Culture” (Spradley 2016) C&C1
“Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS” (Sterk 2016 [2000]) C&C3
“Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” (Lee 2016 [1969]) C&C 2
8/27
Wk “Becoming a Muslim in Europe” (Rogozen-Soltar 2016 [2014]) C&C21
2 “Run for the Wall” (Dubisch 2012 [2006]) C&C 30
8/29
“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” (Miner 2012 [1956]) C&C31
“Public Interest Ethnography: Women’s Prisons and Health Care in California” (Stryker
Wk 9/3 2012) C&C38
3 “Using Anthropology” (McCurdy 2000) C&C39
9/5 University cancelled – Polar Vortex
Culture, Power, and Class
Wk
9/10 Review & Video Preparation
4
9/13 EXAM 1: Anthropology
9/17 Paying for the Party (Armstrong & Hamilton 2013, Chapters 1, 5, 6)
Video Planning day – Attendance very important
Wk
Watch online lecture re:
5 9/19
“The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari” (Lee 2016 [1994]) C&C8
“Reciprocity and the Power of Giving” (Cronk 2016) C&C12
9/24 Paying for the Party (Armstrong & Hamilton 2013, Chapters 7 and 8)
Wk “The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist…” (Robbins 2011:1-11)
6 9/26 Poverty at Work: Office Employment and the Crack Alternative” (Bourgois 2016 [2002])
C&C13
Video #1 Due
10/1
In-class film
Culture, Power, and Race
Wk
www.understandingrace.org in “History”, all of the Science Timeline Articles; in “Human
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Variation”, read all of “The Human Spectrum”, “Race and Human Variation”, “Only Skin
10/3
Deep”, and “Health Connections” (Cannot use Google Chrome)
“Mixed Blood” (Fish 2012 [2008]) C&C22
The New Jim Crow (Alexander 2010) Reggienet
Wk 10/8 In-class film: Thirteen
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10/10 Video Planning day – Attendance very important
“White Privilege” (McIntosh 2009) Reggienet
“White Fragility” (DiAngelo 2011) Reggienet
10/15
Wk “‘White Talk’ As a Barrier to Understanding…” (Bailey 2015) Reggienet
9 Optional: http://examiningethics.org/2017/08/bonus-white-talk/
Latino Heartland (Vega 2015)
10/17
“How Did Jews Become White Folks?” (Brodkin 1996) Reggienet
Video #2 Due
Wk 10/22
Review Session
10
10/24 EXAM 2: Class and Race
Wk Culture, Power, and Gender
11 10/29 “The Five Sexes” (Fausto-Sterling 1993) Reggienet
“Dude, You’re a Fag” (Pascoe 2005) Reggienet

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 11/1 “Hooking Up: Sex in Guyland” (Kimmel2008) Reggienet
“Predatory Sex and Party Rape” (Kimmel 2008) Reggienet
Wk 11/5 Video Planning day – Attendance very important
12 11/7 “Land of the Walking Marriage” (Yuan & Mitchell 2006) Reggienet
“Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife” (Goldstein 2016 [1987]) C&C18
“Global Women in the New Economy” (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2016 [2003]) C&C35
11/12
Wk “Negotiating Work and Family in America” (Shandy & Moe 2016) C&C20
13 Video 3 Due: Gender/Sexuality @ISU
11/14
In-class video
Laughter Out of Place
"Laughter ‘Out of Place’” (Goldstein 2003:18-57) Ch.1
Wk 11/19
“The Aesthetics of Domination” (Goldstein 2003:58-101) Ch.2
14
“Color-Blind Erotic Democracies” (Goldstein 2003:102-135) Ch.3
11/21
“No Time For Childhood” (Goldstein 2003:136-173) Ch.4
THANKSGIVING BREAK: 11/23 -12/1: NO CLASSES
“State Terror, Gangs, and Everyday Violence” (Goldstein 2003:174-225) Ch.5
12/3
Wk “Partial Truths, or the Carnivalization of Desire” (Goldstein 2003:226-258) Ch.6
15 “What’s So Funny About Rape?” (Goldstein 2003:259-274) Ch.7
12/5
“Preface to the 2013 Edition” (Goldstein 2003:xix-xxxiv)
Wk EXAM 3: Cumulative Final
TBA
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